Former Treasury Chief Paulson Loses $1 Million on Sale of Washington Home
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Henry Paulson, former U.S. treasury secretary.
Henry Paulson, former U.S. treasury secretary. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Henry Paulson, the former U.S. Treasury secretary, sold his three-bedroom Washington home last week for about $1 million less than he paid for it near the peak of the housing market four years ago.
The property sold for $3.25 million after originally being listed at $4.6 million, according to the website of the broker, Washington Fine Properties LLC. The asking price was later cut to $4.15 million.
Paulson, who ran the Treasury during the credit crisis precipitated by the housing market’s collapse, paid $4.3 million for the home in August 2006, city property records show. Washington-area home prices declined 25 percent from the time of his purchase through October, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index for the region.
“This is a unique property, singular in its architecture and interior artistry as well as the splendor of its natural setting,” according to the broker’s listing. “It offers comfort, convenience, beauty and exceptional privacy in one of the area’s premier residential neighborhoods.”
Reuters reported the sale yesterday.
The 2,260-square-foot (210 square-meter) home was on the market for eight months before its sale on Dec. 21, according to Redfin, an online real estate brokerage. The house is in the Massachusetts Avenue Heights neighborhood, near the Washington National Cathedral.
The villa-style property was built in 1940 and renovated in 2001. It features a living room with a stone fireplace and hardwood floors, and a master bath with a cast-iron tub and a stone shower with glass door, according to the listing.
A voicemail for Paulson left with his assistant wasn’t immediately returned.
Paulson, 64, served as Treasury Secretary from 2006 to January 2009, and before that was chairman and chief executive officer of New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Louis in Chicago at blouis1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kara Wetzel at kwetzel@bloomberg.net.
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